More than any other games in the 2020s, these have been the biggest letdowns. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, we’re counting down our picks of the most disappointing video games to have launched since 2020.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're counting down our picks for the 10 Most Disappointing
00:14Video Games to have launched since 2020.
00:24Number 10 – Suicide Squad – Kill The Justice League
00:36No one truly had much hope for Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League, but there was a small
00:40bit of hope in our hearts.
00:42This was a new game from Rocksteady, the groundbreaking studio that showed us how to properly approach
00:46licensed games with the Batman Arkham series.
00:48Perhaps they had something to revolutionize the live-service market.
00:58While Suicide Squad does have some exceptional gunplay and controls, the level design and
01:02mission structure create an annoying and repetitive experience, particularly the ones that restrict
01:06you to one method in damaging enemies.
01:08Good ideas are here, but when they're muddled this badly with awful restrictions, how do
01:13you expect players to have any amount of fun?
01:23Number 9 – Skull & Bones
01:32At one point, Skull & Bones did look like a worthy competitor to Microsoft's and Rare's
01:36own pirate-themed live-service game, Sea of Thieves, but that was back when Ubisoft revealed
01:40it in 2018.
01:42Then the delays started coming.
01:44And they didn't stop coming.
01:45Skull & Bones spent a tumultuous decade in development before it finally launched in
01:49February 2024 and what did we get?
01:52An open world with survival and crafting mechanics where our ships had stamina bars.
02:04The combat is fun for about 5 minutes and then it's nothing but open world fatigue
02:09from there.
02:10Go talk to this captain, go to this location, go blow up this one ship, go collect 20 pieces
02:14of wood to craft a hat.
02:15There is simply nothing here that justified our 70 bucks and it certainly didn't justify
02:20a decade of development hell.
02:30Number 8 – LEGO 2K Drive
02:41LEGO and racing go hand in hand like peanut butter and honey.
02:43It's a delicious snack of a sandwich that can be enjoyable but is not ideal to eat if
02:47you want a full meal or stay awake for the rest of the day.
02:51LEGO 2K Drive had the potential to be on par with Forza Horizon or The Crew.
02:55The thing is that it doesn't do much with the LEGO IP outside of visuals.
03:06Sure you can build your own vehicles and you can plow through the destructible environments
03:10but that's kind of it.
03:11The missions don't do anything interesting either.
03:13It's your run of the mill Grand Prix's, time trials, collect-a-thons and what have you.
03:18And that's all without mentioning the awful monetization for season passes and currency.
03:28Number 7 – Battletoads
03:38Microsoft knows they're sitting on a bed of beloved Rare IP but after the failure of
03:41Battletoads we have to wonder what's going on with Xbox.
03:44To its credit, Battletoads does match the look and feel of what the original games were
03:48going for.
03:49So what's the problem?
03:50Well, it doesn't take any cues from modern beat-em-ups.
04:00None of your attacks pack enough oomph to feel satisfying to pull off and the game simply
04:04wasn't difficult enough to live up to the Battletoads name.
04:07It's one thing to make a game accessible to younger or inexperienced players.
04:11It's another to just make it so comically easy that it's boring to play.
04:22Number 6 – Gotham Knights
04:33With Batman Arkham Origins being the last game they developed, many were wondering what
04:36WB Games Montreal was capable of.
04:38Gotham Knights sounded like a good direction for the studio.
04:41Learn what Rocksteady did, get started on a successor to the Arkham games, make it a
04:45live service online co-op but no, no.
04:48This was nothing like what we wanted from a new Batman game.
04:58Grinding for a currency of evidence to unlock story missions, mindless melee combat that
05:03doesn't make any of the four playable characters feel different and why are Robin, Nightwing,
05:08Batgirl and Red Hood all so stupid in tracking down villains?
05:11And don't even get us started on some of the awful writing we had to suffer through.
05:23Number 5 – Senua's Saga – Hellblade 2
05:36Back in 2017, the first Hellblade game was a solid outing from Ninja Theory.
05:40The combat could have used some tweaking but the puzzles, visuals, story, enemy variety
05:44and sound design were top notch.
05:46Fast forward seven years later for the sequel and just what in the heck happened?
05:59Hellblade 2 is a step backwards in how every combat encounter feels the same while most
06:03of the game is spent pushing forward on super linear paths.
06:06Sure, the game looks great but graphics only take you so far when the player gets such
06:11little interaction with the world.
06:12In other words, Hellblade 2 is a prime example of the phrase, all that glitters is not gold.
06:17Seriously, five years of development, five years?
06:27Number 4 – Atomic Heart – Roblox
06:37Atomic Heart was one of 2023's biggest ball drops.
06:40Here we had a game that was clearly inspired by games like System Shock and Bioshock and
06:44presented the topic of robots overthrowing the human race.
06:47Sadly, it missed the mark in understanding what made its inspiration so great.
07:01System Shock and Bioshock weren't just loved for their aesthetics, they had something interesting
07:05to say through their worlds.
07:06Atomic Heart simply wound up becoming narcissists, admiring its own aesthetic so much that it
07:11forgot to do anything else to survive in a super competitive market and thus, it died
07:15as quickly as it arrived.
07:17Perhaps we'd be singing a different tune if there was more refinement in the combat and
07:20less focus on running around rummaging through cabinets for stuff.
07:32Number 3 – Redfall
07:40While many groaned over another AAA studio making yet another online co-op game, Redfall
07:45did have something to catch eyes – vampires and kick-ass powers.
07:49But the more Xbox showed off Arkane Austin's new toy, the worse it looked, and it even
07:53got worse than that at launch.
08:01Redfall was released with a myriad of bugs, ranging from AI failing to properly detect
08:04players to parts of the environment not even loading in.
08:07It wasn't awful enough to render it unplayable, but it was abysmal enough for the game to
08:11be the butt of so many jokes, especially jabs made at Xbox.
08:15Arkane Austin would be one of the four studios Xbox would shut down in May 2024.
08:19Redfall got its final update shortly after, adding in offline support.
08:33Number 2 – Overwatch 2
08:44Overwatch 2 may have a playerbase today, but Blizzard burned many, many players just by
08:48developing it.
08:49The original Overwatch was already considered by many to be perfect the way it was.
08:53The only problem was Blizzard quitting on it after adding one final character in April
08:56of 2020.
08:57So, if Overwatch 2 is a necessary push forward, it's gotta have new maps and game modes,
09:02right?
09:03It's the exact same game, save for teams consisting of 5 players instead of 6, some
09:16character redesigns, and maps taking place at different times of the day than they did
09:20before.
09:21Cool.
09:22So in other words, we killed the original game just to move the light source and take
09:25a player away from both teams.
09:27Make sense?
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09:55Number 1 – Marvel's Avengers
10:07Much like Redfall, Avengers looked worse and worse the more Crystal Dynamics and Square
10:11Enix showed the game.
10:12Unlike Redfall, the waft of Avengers was a lot more present in the months leading up
10:16to launch.
10:17All they had to do was make an exciting game starring Captain America, Iron Man, Thor,
10:20Red Hulk, and whoever else they wanted to add in.
10:32What they gave us was a live service game with a horrible monetization scheme, a bland
10:36story, mundane combat, and a total lack of enemy variety.
10:40Throw in arbitrary RPG mechanics like power levels and gear, and what you were left with
10:44was a game that wanted more money from you for very little effort.
10:48Square Enix would eat a $60 million loss from this game and would sell off Crystal Dynamics
10:52to Embracer Group in 2022.
10:54Marvel's Avengers was marked down to $5 several times after launch before getting
10:58delisted from digital storefronts in September 2023.
11:10Which video game disappointed you the most?
11:12Let us know down in the comments!